"I think you need a bit more of an incentive, Chad," Karen said stepping up to his prone body thrashing on the floor. She reached down to him, and he thought she was going to take the mask off him.
Instead she jammed a gold steel ring in his nose and clamped it shut.
He yowled at the impromptu nose piercing.
"There, Chad, now if you don't move your ass, you'll not only not change back, but you'll keep changing until you're a dumb bull. Remember the football fundraiser barbecue is this weekend. You were to be the guest of honor, you still might be, but you also might be the main course, if you don't find the center of the maze before you change into a bull. Good luck, Chad."
"Wha? Wai-" Chad was dumbfounded Karen had simply clicked her heels together and vanished. He struggled to stand on his hooved feet, it reminded him of trying to stand in his junior prom date's high heels last year. This time he concentrated and plunged head first into the maze. The ring was already working he was sure. He noticed his sense of smell had heightened, and the colors were beginning to fade. Bulls were colorblind, he remembered that much. He turned two more times and ended up at a dead end passage. He snorted angrily.
"Brains or brawn, huh?" Chad asked himself rhetorically. He lowered his head and charged the offending wall.
There was a calamatous crashing sound. He stumbled backward dazed, but still conscious. The wall stood, but it now had two large gashes in its surface. Another chink fell from the damage and he saw light on the other side.
Karen was lying on a chaise lounge at the center of the maze watching Chad's antics in her enchanted looking glass.
"He can't really be serious, can he?" she said looking up from filing her nails.
Chad lowered his head again and charged the damaged wall. This time the wall gave way. Stone blocks tumbled over his neck and shoulders, but he had cut through the maze.
"That's not how he's supposed to do it," groaned Karen angrily.
"Haha, well, sister, before you start sticking animal heads on people, you should be prepared for the consequences," said a mischievous voice. He added, "And I speak from experience."
"Of course, you do, Puck!" Karen said in exasperation. "I don't care if he makes it to the center or not, I'm going to let him change into barbecue."
"Tch, tch, you can't change the rules in mid-game, unless you give him adequate notice. You know that," Puck said in a mocking voice standing on the edge of her chaise lounge.
"Oh, just like a male to take the man's side. Oh, wait, I bet you just want to do it with a minotaur, since your own efforts with that Bottom fellow went awry."
"He had the head of an ass, not a bull," Puck corrected. Then he added, "Besides, since it's my birthday, I thought you might be making him a present to me."
"Your birthday," Karen said with a surprise. She looked at her hand, and counted her fingers quickly, and gasped. Then she looked up and forced a smile, "Happy Birthday, bro."
Puck could be an interfering jerk sometimes, but on his birthdays it was worse. His powers were ten or twenty times stronger than other days, and he had a standing general amnesty from Oberon & Titania themselves for any havoc he might wreak on his birthday.